An RJI Companies agent in September in Brussels pitched the project to a major PR firm, saying that the aim of the second contract is to help portray Russia as a benign great power entitled to negotiate with the likes of the US, China and the EU on global security and energy issues.

He added that part of the PR effort would be to cast a positive light on the actions of the Soviet Union before and after World War II in order to justify the idea that modern Russia should also impose its influence on neighbouring countries for the good of the world.

A senior executive at the PR firm in question recalled one particular exchange with the RJI Companies envoy: “I asked him ‘Do you want us to say that Stalin was not such a bad guy?’ And he said ‘Well, I know it will be difficult.’ I said ‘So, you want history to be rewritten?’ And he said ‘Yes, in a way’.”

“Expect to see more articles in European newspapers saying that Stalin had his good points as well,” the PR executive said.

When contacted by EUobserver, RJI Companies denied that the second contract has anything to do with Stalin. Ria Novosti denied that a second contract exists at all. “Our business is not to enhance Russia’s image. It’s to report news,” the company’s spokesman, Valery Levchenko, said.

Random Quote

You’ve been on the plane for 25 hours and nobody has talked to you and they ask you to get off the plane by the back ramp…You just wonder, where is their sense of manners?— Newt (explaining another reason to shut down government, 1995)